Thoughts?
Posted on 02/22/2007 8:53:39 AM PST by Blogger
A mysterious green cantaloupe-sized metal ball with an unknown firing device, found in 2005 by GIs and a freelance journalist in Mosul, Iraq, is confounding weapons experts trying to pinpoint its origin.
Dubbed "Mystery Weapon 2" by Iraq-based journalist Michael Yon, the orb was found under a barn among a weapons stockpile that was later destroyed by the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment.
"If there's anything that, honest to God, could have nefarious overtones, it's that, because nobody was able to tell what it was," Yon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The Apple of Discord?
A camel apple?
IBM?
"Ask again later"......
LOL! And the thread hijack is complete...
I think it was one of Saddam's party favors.
It's a Holy Handgrenade
Ask it a question and shake it, then wait and see what answer comes up in the little window.
'Cept for the green paint and presumably modern fuze assembly, it looks like an eighteenth-century grenado.
ping
Say, maybe it is. I remember a fascinating article about the contact mines that the Iranians were using in the Straits of Hormuz twenty years ago during the tanker reflagging operation.
They were apparently manufactured for the tsarist military during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904. They then spent eight or so decades being sold from one east-bloc tyranny to another until the Iranians bought them in a job lot of old stuff from the North Koreans. They should have been in a museum but they still worked all too well.
So maybe our heroes discovered a piece of reconditioned Napoleonic war surplus, hey?
Perhaps it's a single sub-munition of the type packaged in cluster bombs.
Its off a 46 Pontiac
It's a baby Death Star...
Green Goblin Pumpkin bomb
The green paint makes it Islamic.
Looks like Kryptonite to me.
Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death...
APRES/AMAT submunition? Daa is 3.8+ inches.
Just a guess having spent many a Christmas picking them up off of the range complex.
I wish Mike would post photos with good lighting and show the full munition with a ruler sitting next to it for scale.
Then again, I wish Mike was covering the Marines and Army at home doing a victory march.
a BIMB?!!!
What's it doing so far from Antioch?
Looks like the ball in Phantasm.
The oulook is Unclear!
I've long suspected that the muzzies (or at least their leadership) are Goa'uld. The behaviour matches.
only $14.95!
Discontinue use of Happy Fun Ball if any of the following occurs: If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head. When not in use, Happy Fun Ball should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration... Failure to do so relieves the makers of Happy Fun Ball, Wacky Products Incorporated, and its parent company Global Chemical Unlimited, of any and all liability. Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space. Happy Fun Ball has been shipped to our troops in Saudi Arabia and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball. Happy Fun Ball comes with a lifetime guarantee. Happy Fun Ball! ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!
Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types of skin.
Shot Put.
That's golden.
It's a pokemon thingy!!
Try the veal...
The silver disk screws into place, as evidenced by it's circular shape, and the leverage slot on the far side's outer circumference.
Two apparant perforations in the circular disk could be a filling point and a vent.
The purpose of two and perhaps three grooves in the spherical casing adjacent to the disk are unclear.
The spherical shape of the device could be a volumetric design decision, as a sphere contains more volume than any other shape, or it could be a strength decision, as a sphere makes a very strong tank, or both.
Best guess, a container for a gas or a liquid. Removal of the disk would reveal the presence or absence of a fusing or detonation mechanism, also a possible backflow valve. Absence of fusing or detonation assemblies inside the disk would indicate a partial structure, dependent on a larger external ancilliary device to make a weapon out of it.
That it's a weapon of some sort is a given, as a result of where it was found. The machining is of intermediate to high quality, though initial impressions of the disk point towards intermediate techniques. The disk looks to have been designed for strength, not precision.
The green finish appears to be marred or smeared, possibly indicating a past exposure to caustic or acidic substances. If the green color is not a finish but a property of the container material itself, the discoloration may be a discontinuity or non-homogenineity within the material, or a surface effect as described above.
With the device assembled and no view of the interior, that's all I have.
Can the Happy Fun Ball be used by the Viking Kitties to Zot trolls???
Don't ask me. The whole VK thing is so played out, IMO.
An eco-whacko bowling ball.
Good analysis. Think Chemical weapond dispersal, or 1/2 of a binary weapond array. If so, need to rub the media's nose in this. WMD found, that sort of thing.
Good analysis. Think Chemical weapond dispersal, or 1/2 of a binary weapond array. If so, need to rub the media's nose in this. WMD found, that sort of thing.
"The Apple of Discord?"
Imaginative! But, where are the godesses, and where the Judge? What bribes will be offered to obtain the judgement?
Nah, I know those all too well. Ours were gray in color, small threaded hole for the actual fuse, big threads on the other end to screw into the nape tank. It was a white phosphorus igniter that was popped open by the multi-directional fuse (would trigger regardless of impact orientation). Round on one end, flat on the other.
Its a Hillary dropping from her broom flyover
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